The present invention relates to a timer reservation device capable of making a reservation for program recording by such a device as a video tape recorder (VTR), and particularly to an art of inputting and setting reservation data.
Some video tape recorders (hereinafter referred to as VTR), for example, include a clock with calendar for program reservation and have a function for timer reservation, in which reservation data is set by designating a date or a day of the week.
According to a date (month and day) input system for use in setting reservation data, four digits numerals corresponding to the month and day need to be designated. Consequently the system has a disadvantage of complicated operations.
According to a system of designating a day of the week, a date of reservation can be set by specifying only a day of the week if the date is any day within one week from the present time. However, if the date of reservation is any day after one week or more, it is required to specify which future week the date belongs to.
The user could not easily identify the future week the date belongs to unless the date is any day within about two weeks at most from the present time. Therefore the system would be difficult to use except for the case in which just a day of the week may be input for weekly reservation setting in the VTR.
The present invention was made in view of above circumstances and aims to enable the user to make a reservation for program recording without complicated operations in program reservation in such a device as the VTR.
A timer reservation device according to the present invention includes a reservation data store section storing recording reservation data set for reservation, a reservation history store section storing recording reservation data concerning recording which was executed, and a clock section outputting present month and day, time, and day of the week data. Data regarding a day of the week (day of the week data) of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section is compared with the day of the week data from the clock section, and data regarding month and day (month and day data) of the recording reservation data is changed to be stored in the reservation data store section.
If the recording reservation data concerning executed recording is set for daily or weekly reservation, the recording reservation data is not stored in the reservation history store section.
Days of the week included in the day of the week data correspond to 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. If the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section is smaller than the day of the week data from the clock section, a value obtained by subtracting the day of the week data of the clock section from the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section is added to the month and day data of the clock section to change the month and day data of the recording reservation data. If the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section is larger than the day of the week data from the clock section, 7 is added to the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section, and a value obtained by subtracting the day of the week data of the clock section from the result of the addition is added to the month and day data of the clock section to change the month and day data of the recording reservation data.
If the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section is equal to the day of the week data from the clock section, time data of the recording reservation data is compared with the time data of the clock section. If the time data of the recording reservation data is smaller than the time data of the clock section, a value obtained by subtracting the day of the week data of the clock section from the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section is added to the month and day data of the clock section to change the month and day data of the recording reservation data. If the time data of the recording reservation data is larger than the time data of the clock section, 7 is added to the day of the week data of the recording reservation data in the reservation history store section, and a value obtained by subtracting the day of the week data of the clock section from the result of the addition is added to the month and day data of the clock section to change the month and day data of the recording reservation data.
Using the timer reservation device according to the present invention as described above, reservations made frequently for the same day of the week can be input to be re-set with a simple operation by changing the date data of the recording reservation data that was previously set and used for executing reservation, based on the day of the week data thereof, and by storing the changed data.